From ereshefs at ucalgary.ca Tue Jan 12 13:23:05 2010 From: ereshefs at ucalgary.ca (ereshefs@ucalgary.ca) Date: Tue Jan 12 13:23:14 2010 Subject: Upcoming HPS Talks: Jan 13 & 22 Message-ID: <4f84bcbafc912bbc0eb6060a62d2f1cf.squirrel@webmail.ucalgary.ca> There are two History and Philosophy of Science talks this month, and three in March Jan 13 at 4 pm: "History of animal psychology: early European developments" Hank Stam, Dept of Psychology, U of Calgary In TRW 5E22 (medical campus) Sponsored by the History of Neuroscience Interest Group Jan 22 at 4 pm: "Rethinking our Understanding of Darwinism in the Light of the Modern Synthesis" (abstract below) Richard Delisle, Dept of Philosophy, University of Lethbridge In Social Science 1253 Sponsored by the Philosophy Department The March speakers are (details announced later): March 5: Sandra Mitchell, HPS Dept, University of Pittsburgh March 19: Crawford Elder, Phil Dept, University of Connecticut March 26: Mohan Matthen, Phil Dept, University of Toronto All three of these talks are sponsored by the Philosophy Dept and will begin at 4 pm in SS1251. -- Marc Abstract for Delisle's talk: The 1920-1960 period saw the creation of the conditions for a unification of disciplines in the area of evolutionary biology under a limited number of theoretical prescriptions: the evolutionary synthesis. Whereas the sociological dimension of such a synthesis was fairly successful, it was surprisingly loose when it came to the interpretation of the evolutionary mechanisms per se, and completely lacking at the level of the foundational epistemological and metaphysical commitments. Key figures such as Huxley, Simpson, Dobzhansky, and Rensch only paid lip service to the conceptual dimension of the evolutionary synthesis, as they eventually realized that a number of evolutionary phenomena could not be explained by its narrow theoretical corpus. Apparently, the evolutionary synthesis constituted a premature event in the development of evolutionary biology. Not only are the real achievements of the evolutionary synthesis in need of reevaluation, but this reassessment also has important implications for the historiography of Darwinism. From ereshefs at ucalgary.ca Tue Mar 2 10:47:54 2010 From: ereshefs at ucalgary.ca (ereshefs@ucalgary.ca) Date: Tue Mar 2 10:47:59 2010 Subject: HPS Talk, Friday March 5: SANDRA MITCHELL (Pittsburgh), 'Emergence: Philosophy Meets Science" Message-ID: Sandra Mitchell Professor, Department of History & Philosophy of Science University of Pittsburgh "Emergence: Philosophy Meets Science" Friday, March 5, 2010 4pm Social Sciences Building, Room 1253 About the Speaker: Sandra Mitchell is professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at University of Pittsburgh. Her research is on epistemological and metaphysical issues in the philosophy of science. Her interests have centered on scientific explanations of complex behavior, and how we might best represent multi-level, multi-component complex systems. She has published on functional explanation, units of selection in evolutionary biology, sociobiology, biological complexity and self-organization, and scientific laws. Current interests include emergence, the methodological consequences of biological robustness and problems in representing deep uncertainty for policy decisions. Mitchell's most recent book is Unsimple Truths: Science, Complexity, and Policy (University of Chicago Press, 2009). From ereshefs at ucalgary.ca Tue Mar 9 13:40:14 2010 From: ereshefs at ucalgary.ca (ereshefs@ucalgary.ca) Date: Tue Mar 9 13:40:29 2010 Subject: 19th Annual History of Medicine Days Conference - March 12th to March 13th, 2010] Message-ID: <7ec5589bfc374e907230bd582491551c.squirrel@webmail.ucalgary.ca> See attached for information about HISTORY OF MEDICINE DAYS 2010 Friday, March 12 and Saturday, March 13. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: Large Poster Template - March 5, 2010.pptx Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentat ion Size: 740034 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mailman.ucalgary.ca/pipermail/hps-l/attachments/20100309/2707825d/LargePosterTemplate-March52010-0001.bin From ereshefs at ucalgary.ca Tue Mar 16 21:16:10 2010 From: ereshefs at ucalgary.ca (ereshefs@ucalgary.ca) Date: Tue Mar 16 21:16:22 2010 Subject: HPS Talk: Crawford Elder on "Mental Causation, Invariance, and Teleofunctional Content" Message-ID: <883c80ddebc4afc16f763d039bf0dcf1.squirrel@webmail.ucalgary.ca> Crawford Elder Department of Philosophy University of Connecticut "Mental Causation, Invariance, and Teleofunctional Content" Friday, March 19 4:00 pm Social Sciences Building, Room 1253 About the Talk: Can we vindicate the common sense conviction that a person's beliefs and desires are causally efficacious--that they shape that person's behavior? Three obstacles stand in the way. First, there are no exceptionless laws linking beliefs and desires to behavioral outcomes; second, the microphysical (or neurochemical) states of affairs on which beliefs and desires supervene have as strong a claim as beliefs and desires themselves to causing behavioral outcomes; third, even if we could surmount the threat of causal exclusion, we would still face "the problem of mental quausation" for beliefs and desires--we would have to show that beliefs and desires cause outcomes in virtue of having the contents that they do. I argue that the "manipulationist" account of causation not only side-steps the first obstacle, but also shows that there is no competing causation at the level of microparticles or neurochemistry. I then briefly suggest that "the problem of mental quausation", as applied to beliefs and desires, is confused. About the Speaker: Crawford Elder is professor of philosophy at the University of Connecticut. His research interests in metaphysics and the philosophy of mind center on defending the mind-independent reality of whatever is needed to make sense of scientific practice and the cognitive successes scored by ordinary people using common sense. The working hypothesis is that this includes at least some familiar medium-sized objects. So relevant topics include essential properties and natural kinds; properties and natural laws; composition and vagueness. Connected topics are externalism in philosophy of mind, and static versus dynamic conceptions of time. His most recently published book is Real Natures and Familiar Objects (MIT 2004). From ereshefs at ucalgary.ca Fri Dec 17 09:29:51 2010 From: ereshefs at ucalgary.ca (ereshefs@ucalgary.ca) Date: Fri Dec 17 09:30:36 2010 Subject: HPS Research Group Winter 2011 Schedule In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <105e79ecfd90353ef31aee56d449e38f.squirrel@webmail.ucalgary.ca> After a bit of a hiatus, the History and Philosophy of Science Research Group will start meeting again in Winter 2011. Below and attached is the schedule. Please note the Philosophy of Biology Workshop on Feb.5. Have a good break, Marc --------------------- History and Philosophy of Science Research Group Winter 2011 Schedule January 18, Tuesday 3:30 ? 5:00 pm, in SS1253 Jack Macintosh, Philosophy, University of Calgary ?Robert Boyle on Causation and Laws of Nature? February 5, Saturday *Philosophy of Biology Workshop* In SS 1253 10:30- 12:30 Jonathan Kaplan, Philosophy, Oregon State University "The Constructions and Biologies of Race" 12:30-1:30 Lunch (provided) 1:30-3:30 Laura Franklin-Hall, Philosophy, NYU "The Emperor's New Mechanisms: A Critique of Mechanistic Explanation" 3:30-4:00 Coffee break 4:00- 6:00 Eric Desjardins, Philosophy, University of Western Ontario "Irreversibility and Path Dependence in Evolutionary Biology" March 1, Tuesday 3:30 ? 5:00 pm, in SS1253 Peter Toohey, Classics, University of Calgary ?Mental Illness in the Early Roman Empire? -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: HPS schedule W2011.doc Type: application/msword Size: 57856 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mailman.ucalgary.ca/pipermail/hps-l/attachments/20101217/92050a83/HPSscheduleW2011-0001.doc